Act your age
by Wacky Mage
Summary: Just read! This has been rewritten!


Disclaimer: I do not own the Crusade series or any of its characters. Galen and gang belong to JMS. Yes, I'm envious.

Gideon, Dureena and Galen go down to a planet without the other crew and something happens to them. Read to find out what that SOMETHING is

ACT YOUR AGE 

"I wish I had something to drink" complained Dureena as she made her way through the forest. The forest was really thick and cold, it was also a bit dark as the trees has blocked off most of the sun light. Following close behind her was Gideon.

"If the scanners are to be trusted, we're near" said Gideon as he took a look at the scanner and then placed it back into his pocket.

"Yes, we are near," said Galen as he followed behind of Gideon. Gideon turned back to catch a glimpse of Galen.

"Galen, why is it that you're here with us now" said Gideon

"Where should I be?" asked Galen

"What I meant was, you could be there waiting for us instead of going through this forest, fighting off these face-whacking twigs with us" said Gideon

"For exercise" said Galen. "Just because I can doesn't mean I must, I don't want to pamper myself" continued Galen.

"I think I see it" said Dureena as she stopped walking. She pointed forward. There they saw light. It was a clear view as there was no tall trees blocking the sun light at the area. It was a large village. They were about 50 feet away.

"I hope there's something to drink there" said Dureena as she continued walking again.

The village that was just right ahead of them was abandoned. While they were in town quite far from where they were now. They heard a legend. Legend has it that a whole village they were now was in a great danger. They were dying of a sickness, so mysterious that they could not find a cure. And those that came to treat them became sick as well. In 3 years, most of the elderly had died, those that were strong were weak. Then the Gods came in a huge ship and rain down a cure. Then the people of that village were all cured. But for fear that the Gods might come back and ask for something in return. They left their village. And never returned. Gideon came to the conclusion that the Gods in the story was actually Vorlons.

Gideon's link beeped. "Gideon" said Gideon as he answered his link.

"Captain" it was Matheson's voice "I see you have reached your destination" he said

"Yes, what's your status up there?" asked Gideon

"Doctor Chambers wants me to tell you everyone is alright, just a mild food poisoning" said Matheson

"I knew there was something wrong with the green stuff" said Gideon

"Yes sir, you did," said Matheson

"Report to me if anything happens" said Gideon

"Aye sir, out" said Matheson and the connection was disconnected.

Chambers and Eilerson would have been down there with Gideon but some of the crew has had food poisoning, Eilerson included. He has had it the worse. As he enjoyed the green stuff (that Gideon has mentioned earlier) most, they had picked up some supplies from a nearby space station, apparently, they must have given them some rotten food. Gideon felt lucky he avoided eating it. Or he would be at med bay with Chambers.

Gideon looked around and notice that Galen was still nearby looking around. The village was large. With houses made out of stone. Gideon looked around and couldn't find Dureena anywhere.

"Where's Dureena?" asked Gideon. Galen looked around but didn't reply. "She's taking after you again," Gideon said

"Just because you didn't notice her leave doesn't mean it's my fault," said Galen

"I'm here!" said Dureena but she was no where to be seen. Galen and Gideon walked to where her voice seemed to have come from.

They saw her standing in front of a stone building. Fairly tall. Well, taller than the other buildings they've seen. It didn't seem to have any windows, only a really large stone door.

Dureena tried to push it. While Galen and Gideon just watched.

"Don't just stand there" said Dureena as she struggled.

Gideon and Galen then helped too. And they manage to push the door to open a little. But then the door began to move on it's own. All 3 backed off.

Dureena volunteered by walking into the building first. It was dark, but Dureena could tell that it was empty. Galen and Gideon followed behind.

"There's nothing here" said Gideon.

Just then torches that hung by the wall, all flamed up.

Gideon and Dureena turned to Galen.

"It's not me" said Galen

"That's a good thing?" asked Gideon

"Depends" said Galen

"Believe in ghosts?" asked Gideon as he looked around

"Yeah" said Dureena then she walked closer to the wall and brushed off some dirt

"Come here" said Dureena, and both Galen and Gideon went over to see.

It was carvings on the wall. It looked like symbols.

"Maybe we should get this back to Eilerson" said Dureena

Just as Gideon was about to agree, he felt a pain at the back of his head and fell unconscious.

Dureena and Galen felt the pain too and then they too became unconscious.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Gideon opens his eyes and finds that he is in a familiar place. Medbay. He was lying on a bed. And he pushed himself up to a sitting position. He felt like something was wrong. He had this strange feeling something was wrong with him. He felt weird.

Chambers walks in with a piece of paper in her hand and was busy reading that she didn't realize that Gideon was already awake.

"Why am I here?" he asked as soon as he saw her. She looked up and smiled.

"Oh, hey kid, you're up" she said as she took the paper and laid it on a table nearby.

"What did you just call me?" asked Gideon.

Chambers didn't answer, instead she gave him a confused look. Gideon then looked at his hands and legs. This was not his body. He was wearing his own leather jacket and white shirt and black pants. But this was not his body.

"Sarah! What happened to me?" asked Gideon in panic.

"There's nothing wrong with you" said Chambers

"Mirror! Do you have a mirror?" asked Gideon.

Chambers went into her pocket and took out a small mirror she kept. She wasn't vain but she didn't want to look bad. He passed it to him

Gideon couldn't really see his face in full view. But what he saw shocked him. It was a familiar face. It was his face…but years younger, many years younger. He was now a kid.

"Oh My God!" said Gideon as he dropped the mirror. As Chambers picked it up. Gideon ran out of medbay.

He couldn't believe it. He was certain he's only dreaming. He was very afraid. He didn't know what was happening. He wondered if this is a sick joke of a telepath. If that's the case, then no one here was real.

He ran past several people who starred in shock as seeing a child on board the ship was Excalibur.

"Stop him!" he could hear Chamber's voice from behind. Just then, he bumped into a man who popped out of nowhere. And the man has caught hold of his hands.

Gideon gave the man a kick in the leg. But the man refused to let go. A woman came over and helped the man. He was now caught by the legs as well. Gideon struggled to be set free. But they were too strong.

"Let go of me!" he screamed

"You're not real! This is a trick" he shouted. Then he saw Chambers approaching with an injection.

He then shouted "I'm your captain! Let me go!" Chambers caught hold of him and then injected the medicine into his neck.

"Galen! Dureena help me!" he shouted as he passed out.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Gideon woke up again. This time, he prayed he was no longer in that nightmare he was in before, and slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he did was look at his hands.

"Damn it" he cursed softly

"Hey, watch your mouth!" said a familiar voice. Chambers.

Gideon sat up again. He saw that there was a man guarding the door.

"I'm not going to run away again, ask him to go, it's not necessary" he said

"Well, that's good news, because I don't want to chase you again, Matt" said Chambers

"You knew it was me?" he asked, surprised that she called him Matt.

"Not before, but I checked your DNA after you shouted that you were our captain and you called for Galen and Dureena, you're definitely our Captain" said Chambers

"You trusted a potentially crazy kid?" asked Gideon smiling.

"It was in your eyes… you were either Matthew Gideon or his son" said Chambers jokingly.

"Where's Galen and Dureena?" asked Gideon upon realizing that he was with them before any of this happened to him.

"You're not going to like this" said Chambers and went to the man who was guarding the door. She whispered to him and the man nodded and walked away.

"I've done some test, and I'm guessing, you're about 11 years old at this moment" said Chambers.

"11?" asked Gideon

"And the worse news is" said Chambers but stopped when the man came back again, this time with 2 other kids.

One female and the other male. Dressed in clothes that only Galen and Dureena would wear.

"We're 11 too" said Galen

"Galen? Dureena?" asked Gideon in astonishment

"Sucks doesn't it?" asked Dureena

"I must say, I'm kinda glad I'm not alone in this," said Gideon with a big grin.

"I don't like this one bit" said Galen as he looked awkwardly at himself. Obviously feeling uncomfortable.

"So, how did we get here as kids? I remember we down at a planet then I don't remember anything" said Gideon

"Well, Matheson said that the scanners lost 3 of you but found indication of 3 none moving life form instead. He had to get down to get you himself, since some of the crew are still sick. It took him about an hour to get past the forest, and an hour out. There was no place close to the place where they could land" said Chambers

"Are we still orbiting the planet?" asked Gideon

"Yeah, Matheson was still searching for you 3, but after I told him what I found, he called everyone back and said that he will wait for your orders" said Chambers

"He's going to take orders from an 11 year old, we can't let that happen, tell him to take care of the ship, we will look for a way out of this, and don't let anyone know about this" said Gideon. He couldn't let anyone know that the captain of the Excalibur was now only 11, it would only mean trouble. And he trusted that if Matheson took charge there shouldn't be a problem.

"Only a handful of people knows, which includes me and Matheson" said Chambers

"Keep it that way, I agree with Matthew, we should not let the others find out" said Galen.

"Wait, does Max know, please tell me he doesn't" said Dureena, but unfortunately she was met with a look from Chambers which told her that Eilerson knew.

"He's going to have a field day with this" said Gideon, feeling Dureena's frustration as he knew Eilerson would be a jerk about it.

Just then, Eilerson walked in. "Hello little people!" he said as soon as he saw them.

"Wait, what was down there? What could have possibly change you to kids?" asked Chambers ignoring Eilerson

"Nothing" said Gideon

"Nothing at all?" asked Eilerson

"We were at this building and then" said Dureena but was interrupted by Gideon

"Hey! I want to tell the story!" said Gideon

"What's the difference if I told it?" asked Dureena, hands on her hips.

"I bet I can tell it better than you!" said Gideon

Eilerson and Chambers watched with a bit of shock. They were like adults minutes ago and now they were acting like kids.

"Quiet!" said Galen, and both Dureena and Gideon stopped arguing.

"Sarah, do you have a pen?" asked Galen, Chambers nodded.

Chambers took a pen out of her pocket and gave it to Galen. Galen took it and went to a table nearby that had papers on it.

He took one piece of paper and asked, "You want this?"

Chambers shook her head

He then began to draw on it. Gideon and Dureena walked to him and peeked from behind.

Galen was drawing the symbols carved in the building. After he was finish, Galen passed it to Eilerson

"Find out what it means, we saw this in an empty building we were in, after that, I don't remember a single thing" said Galen

"I'll check it out with the locals and see what I can find" said Eilerson as he took the paper.

"Well, go now!" said Dureena rushing Eilerson out of the room.

"See you short little things later" said Eilerson as he pat Dureena's head before he left.

"What do we do now?" asked Gideon

"Well, you can't go out," said Chambers

"Then what?" asked Dureena

Just then a woman dressed as a med staff came in and spoke to Chambers. Then went out when she was finished.

"Well, I would love to baby-sit you 3 but I've got a patient I have to attend to. Our staff are limited" said Chambers

"Ok, Go!" said Gideon

"Can I trust you guys to stay here and not go anywhere?" asked Chambers

"We may be children physically, but are adults" said Galen

"I wish I could believe that" said Chambers as she left.

Gideon was still sitting on the bed while Galen and Dureena was standing in front of him. They got onto the bed and sat next to Gideon.

"Hey, you have hair" said Gideon as he looked at Galen's head. Galen rubbed his head with his hands and messed up his hair that was neatly gelled back.

"It's not unimportant" said Galen. Galen looked at Gideon, who looked at his head with his eyes wide open. He wanted to touch and see if it's real.

"Stop looking at my hair" said Galen. Then he noticed Dureena was watching as well. He felt as if he was targeted by zombies.

"Let's stay focus here" said Galen trying to get their attention off his hair.

"But how?' asked Gideon

"We don't know what turned us into children" said Dureena

"Actually I first thought that I was under mind control…but I don't know what changed my mind, this doesn't feel phony" said Gideon

"Initially, I felt the same way too, but my technomacy would allow me to detect that" said Galen

And the room grew quiet. Just then a light bulb went off in Gideon's head.

"Galen, were you a technomage at 11?" asked Gideon

"No" reply Galen

"Are you one now?' asked Gideon

"Yes" said Galen

"Really?" asked Gideon

"I have no reason to lie about it" said Galen

"Why are you even asking these question, how is it important?" asked Dureena

"It is" said Gideon with a wide, devilish grin.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Kids! Come back here!" shouted a voice from behind.

Gideon, Dureena and Galen were in the bullet car tunnel. They were not in a bullet car, but instead they were flying around all the bullet car tunnels. That's right, flying.

Galen had made a flying scooter appear out of no where. And Gideon showed them a way into the bullet car tunnel, a place where the maintenance crew would go and fix, if the bullet cars were having any exterior damages of the car.

For the past 2 hours, the trio has caused so much trouble that made Chambers never ever want to have kids.

They've scared the patients in med bay who were suffering from food poisoning by making Galen conjure up monsters. Dureena broke into Eilerson's quarters and stole his socks, well, only one of each pair. Then the 3 sang an old folk song of Dureena's and broadcasted it all over the ship. Gideon and Galen didn't know what the song means but they enjoyed singing their lungs out. And now they've caused trouble at the bullet car areas. This time, it seems that they might have been cornered.

Matheson had locked down the tunnels and isolated the kids to one area. Now Matheson was in one bullet car while Chambers was in another. Both arrived at the area, and the kids had no where to go. They were blocked by 2 bullet cars.

Gideon, Galen and Dureena, looked at the left side and saw Matheson with 2 other crew members behind him in one bullet car. And on the right, Chambers was in a bullet car as well. Her arms was folded and she was furious.

"Matthew Gideon, Galen and Dureena! Have you completely lost it?" asked Chambers, her voice load

"Sir, what were you thinking?" asked Matheson

"We're only 11, we're not suppose to think yet, we barely understand sarcasm!" said Dureena

"You're adults for God's sake, act your age!" said Chambers

Galen dissolved the flying scooter and now all stood in between 2 bullet cars.

"Fine, we will" said Galen and grabbed his friends and ran for a door nearby.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"I'm really sorry that I caused all this trouble," said Gideon, not really sincere.

Gideon, Galen and Dureena were finally caught. And now they were at medbay. If it was up to Chambers, she would put them in the brig.

"Matt, you should know better, this is your ship" said Chambers

"We're just having fun" said Gideon

"I'm really disappointed with you 3" said Chambers

"Matheson is now down there making up some ridiculous reason as to why there are 3 human kids on board the ship doing so much damage. Matt, if word gets out, and if you turn back to an adult again, you are going to get screwed, you'll lose the ship, is that what you want?" said Chambers firmly. Gideon shook his head. Dureena and Galen hung their head in guilt.

"Please, just stop messing around till we get your condition figured out," said Chambers.

All 3 nodded. Just then Eilerson walks in.

"Hey there little monkeys, I heard you guys messed up the whole ship… I thought we were being attacked by the enemy when I heard that son" said Eilerson

"What's a monkey?" asked Dureena

"A monkey. Erm…look at Max" said Gideon

"I'm un-amused" said Eilerson and took out a piece of paper from his pocket and gave it to Gideon. He opened it and it was the symbol Galen drew out before. Dureena laughed when she noticed Eilerson was wearing mismatched socks. It wasn't obvious but she caught a glimpse of it.

"You know what it means?" asked Gideon as he got up. Galen and Dureena got up and stood behind of him.

"Yes…it means mischief" said Eilerson.

"Mischief?" asked Galen, Eilerson nodded. Just then, Galen felt a pain at the back of his head and he noticed that Dureena and Gideon must feel the same as the expression of their faces suggested so.

And then it was dark.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

His eyes were closed but he could tell the lights were back on. Galen opened his eyes and see that Gideon and Dureena was standing in front of him. They were in Med bay. And they were now adults.

"What happened?" asked Dureena as she looked down at her own body.

"I thought we were?" said Gideon but didn't finish.

"As I said, I can't come along with you, we are short on hand and I don't think Max will be following you guys too, he has it the worse out of all the patients, but he'll alright in a few hours" said Chambers. Gideon starred at her with confusion. That was the exact same thing she had said in the morning when she told them she wouldn't be going to the planet.

"It didn't happen?" asked Dureena

"Erm, it's ok, Sarah. We're not going down" said Gideon

"Why?" asked Chamber but Gideon walked out the door without saying anything else. Galen and Dureena followed.

"Because we already did" Galen answered softly. Dureena gave him a confused look.

"Is it some trick?" asked Dureena

"Mischief" said Gideon walking in front of them and held up the paper with the symbol in his hand.

"It was real" said Galen

"So, what do we do now?" asked Dureena

"We'll just have to walk away from this one, clock is still ticking" said Gideon

END 

Review please!


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